Edward 7th Hanover

[allen ives]

Why the switch from Mrs Victoria Hanover to Mr Edward Sax-Coburg Gotha when it was his turn for the top job?

[JohnPPotts]

Edward VII, and come to that Victoria's surname was Saxe Coburg Gotha because it was Albert's surname (none of this modern, keeping your maiden name then). George V later changed his surname to the more English sounding Windsor as it was considered impolitic for the King to have a German surname when war with Germany looked likely, prompting the Austrian Emperor to comment that "It's a sad state the British royal family has come to, when they have to change their name because of a mere war."

[allen ives]

Thanks for that, John, but there are a couple of problems remaining.

One, Vic DID keep her maiden name - her 'house' was still that of Hanover.

Two, in typically muddle-headed royal fashion, the switch from S C Gotha to Windsor didn't happen until 1917. Perhaps they hadn't noticed there was a war on....

[incitatus]

Its one of those tricky points of dynastic interpretation. Victoria was a member of the house of hanover. And a relatively sane one, at least by their somewhat loopy standards. However when she married Albert her surname changed to S-C-G. Her house was technically the same as she was the regnant and Albert the consort. Her offspring were S-C-G by birth, or rather (by some interpretations) S-C-G-Hanover. In much the same way, charles, when (or if) he succeeds would be a Mountbatten-Windsor. Though he would probably drop the first bit quietly. As for the famous switch: It took that long for there to be enough public animosity for the upper classes to notice! The initial period of the war was seen as a standard military action. It was only after the notion of total war, and particularly rationing, hit in that all the stories of atrocities came around.

[mikewith]

Or to sum up, it looks like the Royals switch House names when they feel like it. I suppose it gives them something to do. Wasn't there a fuss over Lord Mountbatten (formerly Battenburg - they anglicised like the Royals) manoeuvering so that when Eliz II married his nephew, Phillip, the name of the Royal House be changed to Mountbatten. This plainly didn't happen. But, it seems, it *could* have done...